Years ago, on the Avatar production, we all became pretty obsessed with Futa, the seemingly-bipedal red panda who had captured the adoration of the Japanese public. I recently remembered that Futa was the original inspiration for our red panda-ferret hybrid character Pabu. Unlike the rest of his derpy species (and Pabu, who is also fairly derpy), Futa always looked businesslike and no-nonsense standing on his hind legs all the time, like he was looking for other red pandas to boss around. “Hey! You there! Stop being a derp. Back to work.” I always thought he needed a tie.